Karlsruhe (ots) - EnBW also striving for more competition in the interests of customers

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG aims to continue on the path of growth through the year 2001 - primarily through strong regional, national and Europe-wide partnership concepts. This was according to Gerhard Goll, Chairman of the Board of EnBW, at the company's Annual General Meeting 2001, held in Karlsruhe on Wednesday. "Our concern is not to sell as much electricity as possible, but to be the most popular electricity provider with customers, and hence the most successful".

"The market in which EnBW operates is characterized by both obstructive and dynamic forces," is how Goll described the market situation, reporting that the obstructive forces had placed a strain on annual profits for the year 2000 and were expected also to put added pressure on profits for the financial year 2001. Goll put the figure for additional expenditure arising through the unjustified refusal to grant supply-access licences and the creation of obstacles to such access as being in the region of several 100 million marks.

Goll asserted that the customer too was suffering from the continuing disputes between electricity suppliers and network operators. "Customers are the victims of the restrictions on access," stressed the EnBW Chairman. All network operators who impose such restrictions should consider that they too have customers and want to keep them. The efforts by the German Federal Cartel Office to combat such market restrictions are welcomed and supported by EnBW.

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG

"But there also exists a considerable dynamic since the market is reorganizing itself," continued Goll. Thus, in 2000, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG's sales rose by 45.8% to DM 11.4 billion. Electricity consumption rose by 42.2% to a total of 77.9 billion kilowatt hours (kWh). Net income for the year rose by 29.8% to DM 351, while the result from ordinary activities fell by 43.7% to DM 488 million.

This development has continued into 2001. In both 2000 and 2001, EnBW has been able to considerably increase its customer base, and this success is attributed essentially to compelling partnership concepts, as the recent contract with Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG, for instance, has shown. Here, using its innovative partnership concept, EnBW had managed to assert itself against far higher purchase-price offers from two other bidders.

EnBW reports also to have pursued a partnership concept over its commitment to the Spanish mixed group Hidrocantabrico, where it was not EnBW, but its partner enterprise Ferroatlantica, which acquired a majority shareholding in Hidrocantabrico. Together with French partner EDF, EnBW wishes to remain active in European market development. To date, EnBW is the only German energy company which is able to supply its customers with electricity on a Europe-wide basis. In addition, cooperation agreements with Neckarwerke Stuttgart AG and ZEAG AG (Zementwerk und Elektrizitätswerk Heilbronn AG), as well as the company's holding in Salamander AG, have also contributed to growth.

This trend is continuing. Over the current financial year, EnBW is predicting a growth in sales to DM 15 billion, and is further anticipating significantly higher net income for the year, as well as a higher result from ordinary activities.

Goll is convinced that the 8-times oversubscription to the contingent convertible bond issued by EnBW in May, as well as the A+ rating given to EnBW by Standard and Poor's, both represent proof of the fact that the EnBW strategy is also accepted and supported by the capital market.